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State education department seeks $378,000 from Ruston voucher school

john_white_mandeville.jpg

The Louisiana Department of Education is trying to recover $378,000 in voucher payments it gave the New Living Word School in Ruston in 2012-13. Superintendent John White called the $6,300 the school charged each voucher student 'inflated and egregious.,
(Ellis Lucia, NOLA.com | Times-Picayune archive)

A high-profile voucher school has been sent to collection. According to a report in The Town Talk, the Louisiana Department of Education is trying to recover $378,000 it gave the New Living Word School in Ruston in 2012-13. The school was barred from participating in the voucher program this fall after an audit revealed it charged $6,300 for voucher students but less than $2,000 if families paid on their own.

Superintendent John White called the $6,300 price tag "inflated and egregious." The state wants to get the difference back.

Vouchers, officially called the Louisiana Scholarship Program, allow low-income students to attend private school at taxpayer expense. Participants must come from C, D or F schools or be entering kindergarten. However, the amount the state will pay per student is capped -- at roughly $8,500 this year, depending on the district -- and schools may not charge voucher students more than other students.

New Living Word educated 97 voucher students in 2012-13, the first year of the statewide program, according to state data. The school's administrators said non-voucher students paid more in goods and services. However, the state did not accept that reasoning. In an August email, department staff told the school the matter was now in the hands of the Louisiana Attorney General's collections department, according to the Town Talk.

The financial terms seem to have reversed: Most of last year's voucher students enrolled in New Living Word this fall, but the principal is allowing them to attend tuition-free.